Dear Father Anselm,
Again, as in my reply to the original questioner, I am able to give only
incomplete information, since all my Schottenkloster work is at home and
I am now in the university; and casual references to my publications
seem to get us nowhere, since I have the unfortunate habit of publishing
in German. But the question of the Scots v. the Irish is a fascinating
one, which I can do partly from memory, with more information later if
you want it. Clearly (and I need hardly say it), when the Middle Ages
say 'Scots' they mean 'Irish', so that the Schottenkloester, of which
there were many in Germany and Austria, are clearly all Irish and all
date back to the one foundation in Regensburg, which is 11th c.. Why
they went there in the first place is far from clear and is wrapped up
in wholly fictitious legend (which is where I, a humble Germanist,
became interested, since there is a Middle High German version of this
legend). Once in Regensburg, they spread out, and became one of the
earliest Benedictine congregations in Germany. The monks all had to be
imported from Ireland, and as time went on this became inpractical, and
one by one the monasteries became German. Regensburg held out longest,
but it too was in sad decline, with only a handful of monks, by the time
of the Reformation. This is where the Scots came in. Scottish merchants
in Regensburg noticed the sad state of the Schottenkloster and persuaded
the Pope (dates, I'm afraid, are not in my head) that the Irish had no
right to be there, since Scotus = Scots, and amazingly they were
believed. As the Irish died off, Scottish monks took over in Regensburg,
and after the Reformation the Regensburg Schottenkloster became a centre
of Scottish emigre Catholicism. (A portrait of Mary Queen of Scots is
said to have adorned the church.) This continued until the
secularization of the monasteries in 1806 (check!) that resulted from
the Reichsdeputationshauptschluss (my favourite German word), and the
last remaining monks were housed in Fort Augustus where, as you know,
they still are. I don't think they traded in whisky, but who knows. The
original Irish monks of the 12th/13th century are known to have traded
in furs as far afield as Kiev.
Best regards, Frank Shaw
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